Smile Together once again supported the Oral Health Foundation’s month-long national campaign, National Smile Month, joining other oral care organisations across the country to highlight the importance of taking good care of your oral health.
Running from 15th May to 15th June, this year’s overarching theme was “Brush for Better Health”, shining a light on the importance of brushing our teeth. Weekly sub-themes focused on the mouth, daily routines, systemic diseases, the environment and technology and, as a certified B Corp, discussions around eco switches and the recycling of oral health products were particularly important for us. We highlighted that our Harleigh Road Dental Centre in Bodmin is a registered Colgate TerraCycle location for patients and the local community to deposit their old toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes and other oral care product packaging for recycling. This is complemented by smaller recycling points in each of our locations and in many of our Brighter Smiles school communities. Holly, our purchasing specialist, is helping us source and stock recyclable and more sustainable oral health products.
This year we invited our colleagues to snap a #MySmileySelfie to show their support in raising awareness for #NationalSmileMonth and #BrushingForBetterHealth. We had some fun entries which you can see below. Some were taken in the surgery environment whilst others took to the beautiful Cornish landscape, and we even had Prince the horse involved too! We asked our good friends and partners Chris Hines MBE and Martyn King of FUEL to judge whose was the most creative/funniest selfie and the winning entry was Karn Percival, winning a Boutique Whitening Kit worth £350! Chris and Martyn both agreed that: ‘It was super seeing Smile Together colleagues getting involved and being creative for National Smile Month. The selfies were entertaining and certainly made us smile! Judging was a dilemma as they were all great, but we loved the fun simplicity of Karn’s winning entry’.
We also took to social media to share top dental tips (many of which you can find on our informative Patient Hub) and to raise awareness of #NationalSmileMonth. Our Newquay practice created a super display in the patient waiting area with a wealth of information about oral health regimes. It was certainly eye catching and prompted lots of great discussions with families and individuals about brushing techniques and taking care of your oral health.
Our Brighter Smiles team were out and about visiting Cornish primary schools, nurseries and family hubs, providing oral health education to children and their families and applying fluoride varnish to little teeth to help guard against decay. The children love learning about looking after their teeth with the help of our mascot, Dylan the dragon and are always super excited to go home with an oral health pack which includes toothbrushes, toothpaste and 2-minute brushing timers!
Following suggestions from our colleagues, we also nominated Outreach Dental Therapist, Natalie Peary, in the Nominate A Smile competition, which recognises those who go that extra mile to bring a smile to people’s faces. In previous years our Isles of Scilly dentist Michael Twamley and Brighter Smiles Lead Dental Nurse Jo Trevelyan have been recognised in this competition, so best of luck to Nat this year!
It’s always so inspiring to see the UK dental community coming together online to raise awareness of oral health issues and highlight the importance of good oral health. Our thanks to the Oral Health Foundation for all their hard work in driving this national campaign – we’re already looking forward to next year!
